Stages of Falling
by Luna Darkside
Summary: Chikage watches as her son breaks, heals... and breaks again. /requested by Saia-chan, KaiShin & ShinKai, oneshot, complete/


**Prompt: "**I'd love to see one written from Chikage's pov as she observes the relationship between Shinichi and her son, no matter the stage of it. (pre-relationship, developing, established, post-relationship)"

**Requestor: **Saia-chan

**Pairing: **all stages of Shinichi x Kaito / Kaito x Shinichi

**Note(s): **I have not read any of the Magic Kaito manga, and I haven't seen the Kid cases/specials that involve Chikage in a pretty long time, so I don't know/remember her character or backstory particularly well. My research consisted of reading her wiki page on DC World.

tldr; Chikage's probably OOC.

Anyway, hopefully this turned out… enjoyable? (It's really not, in my opinion. Cuz there's some angst.) – Luna

**Stages of Falling**

Chikage isn't quite sure what to think when she enters her weekly video chat with Kaito and he's not smiling.

"What's wrong, honey?" she asks, though she doesn't know if she really wants to know the answer. She settles in the hotel armchair and leans forward, trying to grasp the computer screen tighter.

He's so like his father, she thinks with fond irritation as Kaito blinks, realizes he's not wearing his Poker Face, and quickly snaps it into place. "Huh? Nothing, Mom! Everything's fine!" he chirps, and she sends him a stern look, because no, everything is _not _fine, and they both know it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Chikage questions, gently, once his little snippets of forced laughter flicker and fade. She tries to convey with her tone that if he does, she's there for him, and if he doesn't, she'll be waiting.

"Uh…" For a brief moment, Chikage sees the thoughts warring on Kaito's face (_yes _or _no _or _maybe_), and then one side seems to win because he shakes his head. "Nah, I'm good. Everything's fine." Smile.

She waits, though, waits in the quiet Parisian-styled hotel room, and watches.

Kaito seems to know she's offering him a second chance, because he glances away, one hand rising to rub against the back of his head. "Well, actually, Aoko started dating Hakuba. Yesterday."

The words, quietly mumbled towards Kaito's shoulder, are enough to send Chikage's heart plummeting. She's known, always known, that Aoko wasn't _exactly_ the right fit for Kaito, just a few too many curves and a few too many edges in a few too many places, but Kaito hasn't. He's always believed she'd be his and he'd be hers and they'd belong to each other and it would be perfect.

"Okay," Chikage says, and knows that it won't help, _she_ won't help, not from this distance. "Okay."

She wishes she was there, and she can tell from Kaito's face that he wishes it, too.

* * *

Their next-next-next video call is more cheerful. The dark circles underneath Kaito's eyes seemed to have finally, _finally_ lessened, Chikage notes with soul-shaking relief. She relaxes a little in the smoke-scented Vegas hotel room.

"How've you been, Kaito?" she queries brightly, and exhales slowly when Kaito smirks back at her.

"Better," he says. He's clearly fresh from a heist, still wearing the blue dress shirt and necktie and euphoric, adrenaline-fueled half-grin, and Chikage almost has to hold back tears because her little baby's all grown up and following in her and Toichi's footsteps.

"So?" she beams. "How was the heist?"

"It was great." A slight shadow shades Kaito's eyes for a moment. "Although I almost got caught, actually."

Chikage is halfway out of her chair before she realizes it. "What?" she gasps, mind whirling. "Are you okay? What about Nakamori-kun? What's –"

"Mom, Mom, it's fine," Kaito hurries to reassure her, rising on his side of the screen. "Actually, um…" He hesitates, and in that moment, every last bit of Chikage's trepidation vanishes, because Kaito is hiding something.

"Kuroba Kaito," she says. The words are steel.

Kaito jumps visibly, paling. Chikage takes a sadistic moment of pleasure in still being able to corral him. "W-Well, uh…" He looks down, and is that a dreamy _smile_ on his face? "This guy saved me."

Motherly instinct surges in Chikage's chest. "This guy." Ice and fire, simultaneously.

"No no no, don't get the wrong idea." Kaito is waving his hands frantically. "No, don't take it the wrong way, really. It's just – he saved me from getting captured. He helped me escape."

Oh. Oh.

_Oh._

"Really?" Chikage has switched from furious to suggestive in a matter of seconds. She commends herself internally. "So this guy – _saved _you."

Kaito looks at her askance. "Don't make this weird."

"Riiiight." Chikage is almost giggling at this point, because there's just a tiny bit of pink in Kaito's cheeks and the most adorable flush in his voice, and her heart is lightening at the thought that maybe, just maybe, Kaito will get over Aoko.

As Kaito scowls at her, a thought occurs to her. "Oh, Kaito?"

"Hm?"

"Did he – compare you to a jewel, by any chance?" _And kiss you?_

The expression on Kaito's face is bewildered, amusingly so. "What?"

"Oh, nothing." Chikage actually does giggle as she thinks back, all those years ago and those sweet words the man in white had given her.

Kaito blinks at her as if she's insane.

* * *

So this is the guy.

Chikage squints at the screen, where Kaito and his man are awkwardly sitting on the couch together. He's the illustrious Shinichi she's heard so much about?

More importantly, isn't he Yukiko's Shin-chan?

She voices the question aloud. "Aren't you Yukiko-chan's 'Shin-chan'?"

Shinichi blinks and nods, slowly. "Yes, actually. You know my mom?" He shares a look with Kaito, and Kaito shrugs.

Well, that's a good sign. Chikage doesn't doubt that Yukiko raised her son right. She leans back against the Victorian wallpaper behind her and slants her head at him, pulling on a smile. "So how long have you two been dating?"

They stammer and stumble over each other, and it's honestly heartbreaking how cute they are, trading snarky remarks and kicks in the shin. The actions are all warm and friendly and comfortable, the half-hidden smiles even more so.

Chikage leans on one elbow and watches. She can tell they make each other happy – Kaito's smiles are easier, realer, genuine – and that's good enough for her.

"Kaito," she finally cuts in when Shinichi makes a comment about fish and Kaito smacks him with a pillow, "aren't you being a bad host?"

Kaito freezes, holding a pillow against Shinichi's cheek. "Huh?"

"Go get Shinichi-kun something to drink," Chikage chastises, making a shooing motion. "Not offering is bad manners."

"But it's _Shinichi_."

"And aren't I amazing?" Shinichi interrupts, and Kaito scowls, whacking him across the face with the pillow. "Damn it, Kaito!"

"I'll get you some of that poison you insist on drinking," Kaito says, hopping off the couch.

"Black coffee isn't poison!" Shinichi calls after him. Kaito's footsteps pad off.

"Shinichi-kun?"

"Yes, Kuroba-san?" Shinichi looks back at the computer.

Chikage smiles. She is aware that her smile probably doesn't qualify as a smile by most dictionaries' definitions, considering that while her teeth are showing, there is no sign of joviality anywhere. "If you hurt my son, I will fly in and murder you in your sleep."

Shinichi blanches, but then smiles faintly. "Oh, don't worry. I'll be six feet underground before you're even off the runway."

"That's right," Chikage sniffs, but she smiles back at him. As long as he knows that.

* * *

The door sticks a little when Chikage opens it. Her keys jingle in her hands as she makes her way through the entry, carefully navigating her oversized suitcase around behind her.

She clomps towards the living room, shedding her scarf and coat along the way. "Kaito?" she calls quietly, pushing the door to the room open when she hears an almost imperceptible cough.

At the sight that awaits her, Chikage's stomach turns thirty-seven degrees and she feels as if she's falling into a bottomless pit.

"Kaito," she repeats softly, and Kaito doesn't really move. He's stretched out on the couch, lying on his stomach, and the little side-glance he gives is just enough for Chikage to see the sleepless black marks underneath his eyes and the fragments of a fractured smile struggling to reunite on his lips.

"Hey, Mom. Welcome home."

Oh God, he's – he's completely wrecked, she thinks, and kicks off her shoes, half-running across the room. "Kaito," she stammers, reaching out to gather him up in her arms. He doesn't resist, and he feels small and shattered and shivering.

Chikage's heart burns for him.

"I'm sorry," she whispers into his hair, rocking back and forth. She's awkwardly kneeling beside the couch, and her arms are aching from the odd angle she's using to hold Kaito, but she honestly couldn't care less about herself at this moment.

"It's okay," Kaito mutters back. He lifts his hands to press them against her shoulders. "It's okay."

It's not okay, it's really not, and Chikage wants to say so much, but she just doesn't know what would help or what would hurt. She settles for mumbling a variety of _I love you_'s and _don't worry_'s and _I'm so, so sorry_'s.

Kaito doesn't quite reply to any of them, and Chikage wants desperately to _do _something, but in her heart, she knows the only one who _can_ is the same one who's gone.

"It gets better," she says, and hopes fervently that she's not lying.

* * *

**So. *cough* Yeah, um. Not my usual genre.**

**Also, I will allow you to decide what happened with Shinichi. Did he die? Did they just break up? I have no idea, because even I didn't want to decide.**

**In case you didn't know, requests are STILL open. Rules on my profile!**

**Hope you found this, um, decent, Saia-chan, and see you all around! – Luna**


End file.
